


First let me tell you this: I love you, fool

by tothemovies (jarofactonbell)



Category: Naruto
Genre: GAY PANIC INTENSIFIES, Gen, M/M, and there is a betting pool, everyone knows they're dating, it's more likely than you think, sneaky sns but i love my son naruto, tag yourself i'm kiba's kermit brain, they're dating but they don't know it, touchy kibashino???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 14:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18412121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jarofactonbell/pseuds/tothemovies
Summary: “You!” He gasps. “That wasn’t fair!”Shino rolls his eyes, rising to the tall and imposing stature that he adopts over long years of archery with Torune.“Not everything is a game, Kiba.”Everything is a game,the Kermit Brain Central mutters back,and right now Shino is winning.Kiba can’t seem to calm his heart down. His heart beatlesswhen he’s sprinting competitively in regionals. This is. This is just preposterous, that's what it is. Plain and clear -





	First let me tell you this: I love you, fool

**Author's Note:**

> I had to do it for the 3 kibashino stans. Also Hinata and kibashino cuddling. PLEASE JUST STAB ME
> 
> also laura i'm so glad you're happy with it, please sleep, and if you have sketches for me, please slide them over owo

First of all. This is really comfortable. 

Second of all. Kiba needs to wash the damned dog.

And third. Nap. Then responsibilities.

 

Hinata walks in and sees them all in a big doggy pile, Kiba on top of his chest, Shino scrolling on his phone with his arms and hands pillowed on the back of Kiba's head and neck.

Akamaru is sprawled on both of their legs, loudly snoring.

“Hey pollywog,” he lowers his phone. “Anything I can help with?”

Hinata quickly shakes her head, reaches over into Kiba’s back pocket and pulls out a slip of paper. She leaves wordlessly, after patting Shino absently over his eyes.

“Did someone touch my butt?” Kiba rumbles into his collarbones as Shino saves a Bug’s Life meme. 

“Hinata,” he grunts back, with exactly no effort in his actions. 

“Oh, that’s okay, I was holding onto some notes for her,” Kiba yawns, and rolls out from under his chin. “I’m off to see Hana. Want me to get you something?” 

“A sense of purpose in life,” he drawls back, withdrawing his legs from under the stupid dog. This is just ridiculous. How long is this monstrosity going to grow to?

What the _hell_ is Kiba feeding him? 

“Yeah so I only got like, twelve bucks, so I might have to skip out on that purchase, buddy. Anything else?”

Shino doesn't move from the couch. Or make an effort to reply.

Not that Kiba expects an answer anyway. He quickly shuts out Shino's undoubtedly smartass reply and leaves, slamming the door behind him. 

 

"Conversations with him are so tiring,” is the first thing Kiba greets Ino with. 

“Hi Ino, how are you? I'm great Kiba, thanks for not asking,” the girl mocks him, sharply manicured nails twirling around the straw in her afternoon cocktail. “Take a seat, idiot. And now say hi properly.” 

“Hi Ino, how are you,” he parrots back obediently. 

“Everything that leaves your mouth nowadays is just a litany of _Uhu Ino, Shino did this,_ and I'm sick of it. Can't I hang out with you, idiot dog lover, and just hear about you?” She stabs a finger into his shoulder, pushing him slightly back into his seat. 

“Because my life is boring?” He offers. 

“Wrong answer. Try again,” she buzzes, because she can do that now and look like she stepped off Vogue directly just to have a conversation with normal human him. 

“Because I think that I'm boring but also my roommate is an absolute nightmare and you need to hear all about it.”

“What, Hinata doesn't share your plight?” Ino raises a perfectly drawn eyebrow. “She's been mentioning you two less as like, separate beings, and just condense you both into an entity. I think you're just reaching a level that is too uncategorisable for her and she's given up.”

“Why would you need to categorise your roommates into boxes for?” He wonders, because what Hinata talks to her friends about, he's no idea. She's very quiet and is slowly opening up to him about the situation at home. Surely she wouldn't devolve into gossip with the likes of Ino who makes mockery a contested sport? 

“Well first of all because we love to perpetuate stereotypes and think we live in a reality TV show. And the second reason is that once you are being referred to as a unit with another person,” Ino leans forward, palm in her hand, “you two are just a dating item.” 

Kiba's first thought is _Shino would hate that._  

Then his second thought wasn't as synched up as the first. It just said _So what? It's Shino. It's not the worst thing that can possibly happen to anyone._  

“Not the case. Would not even work out,” is what he ends up saying. 

Ino stirs her drink and sips on it obnoxiously, as if she knows something he doesn't. 

 

Shino is directly behind the door when he opens it with grocery and steals half the bags from him, climbing out the window. Akamaru barks at him once, because he always goes out to feed the dung beetles behind the bush next to their apartment and it happens every single day. 

“Come back in five!” He calls out in futility. Akamaru barks louder, only for Hinata's phone to vibrate next to her textbook.

“Shino-kun said he heard you both and,” she twists to see the characters. “You're annoying, shut up?” 

“Take away the question mark,” he sighs, spotting the vegetables away in their tiny fridge.

“Shut up, full stop,” Hinata amends. 

“Thank you,” he tells her, pulling out a pan.

“What are you making?” She pads quietly to the stove, standing on her tiptoe to see the food. 

“Something for the both of you. But especially for that idiot, because he's not eating well,” Kiba steps aside easily and moves things over Hinata’s head so that she can observe better. “Watch your head, pup.”

Hinata, while not having a strong aversion to any sorts of food, blinks as he pulls out two winter melons and a chopping board.

“You're making winter melon soup?” 

“How else will the idiot eat it?” 

Hinata doesn’t say anything, just gives him the same look Ino gave him earlier on the week. 

“What,” he squints at her, a touch defensive. “I can’t trick him into eating if I don’t pull this stunt. Don’t look at me weird.” 

“I’m not,” Hinata pats him in the arm. “I just think you’re very nice to him, that’s why.”

“Pup, I’m nice to _everyone._ ” 

“And especially to Shino-kun!” She calls out over her shoulder. “Akamaru, come.” 

Kiba is left staring at the pots, frowning. He tosses in some diced beef to balance out the bitterness of the melons and set aside some wild grass to mix it into a salad, hands occupied while his head is zooming to a lot of distances per every passing minute. 

“Hang on,” he realises, when he’s putting away the sesame oil. “Why am I making only the idiot’s favourite food?”

A voice, like a mixture of Ino and Shikamaru’s, giggled obnoxiously in the back of his head. It’s giggling to the tune of _So is this love,_ which Kiba quickly banishes.

“I’m just being nice,” he declares. 

And that is that.

That has not been that. 

No.

 _No,_ his mind supplies again, but with more emphasis of how much he’d rather it not be. If he could bespoke out of existence, he would, but tertiary education doesn’t allow that to happen. 

 

Kiba storms out of his tutorial, fuming from the tips of his ears, and dials Shino right from the get go. When they scheduled their timetable (read: hacked onto the system and put each other in classes that would be convenient for each other), Kiba’s tutorials always end when Shino is having a two hour block break, so he should be free. Unless the entomology club calls and he is otherwise occupied. Kiba doesn’t want to turn to Naruto and rant about academics being absolute assholes, something the politics major probably can’t get behind. He’s too much of a nice bean to say anything bad about Ibiki.

“Kiba,” Shino picks up, long suffering sigh on the other end. “Where are you?” 

“No, where are _you?_ I’ll come over to the couch outside the first floor library if you’re there, otherwise I’m in,” he squints around, bag swinging. “The economics building, lecture hall number -” 

“Three. Hang up. I can see you,” there are footsteps and a wild Shino appears, billowing cloak swishing as his freakish long legged strides make their way to Kiba. 

That’s actually so unfair. Shino is already pretty and mature and composed. Now he gets to be tall? 

Blasphemous. 

Someone, he distinctly remembers as being from Suna, passes by them with his friends, starts to giggle excitedly as Shino dodges Kiba’s welcoming swipe at his head, not even phased as he steals Kiba’s bags away from him. 

“Hello to you too, Kiba,” the bastard intones. 

“I can carry my own bags!” He shrieks back. 

Shino stares at him long and hard, over his tinted glasses. 

“They’re mine now,” he whispers, holding them above his shoulder. “Go find a couch. I’ll give them back after I’ve emptied out all the rubbish.” 

“Meddler!” He hisses, but goes off to find a couch, furiously typing a complaint to Choji, who keeps on leaving him on read. 

“A meddler who cares about your back not breaking,” Shino calls, from somewhere far away. 

“Just hurry up already!”

Upon Shino’s return, Kiba shamelessly steals his scarf from around his shoulder and lodges himself snugly against his left side, sulking for a solid minute in the warm presence of this mothman who resides in a teenage boy’s body. 

At least he’s warm. That’s a winning point. One point to Cuddle Team. 

“What did Ibiki do now,” Shino picks the bits of paper Kankuro shoved onto his head, carding through his hedgehog hair spike. “I can’t tell if you put gel in this or not.” 

“Nah,” he says. “Didn’t have time to.” 

“Just do your homework before the morning of the class,” Shino rolls his eyes. 

Kiba thinks it’s just ridiculous that he can tell all of these things while he can’t technically see Shino’s eyes. 

Maybe they’re getting too close and now they’re telepathic. 

“Shino, what am I thinking,” he tugs on the lapel of the coat. 

His friend, roommate, childhood bro, thorn by his side, pain in the ass - takes off his glasses, blinking as he tries hard to focus on Kiba’s face.

“That I’m a pain in the ass,” is the grumbled response. “To be fair, you think that as a default whenever you see my face, so. Not a lot of guesswork needed there.” 

He pretends to gasp dramatically and swindle away the coat too, because Shino is a literal furnace and he doesn’t get cold, _like ever,_ but that’s a bit hard since they’re sitting all on it. He settles by pulling on another jumper, an opera concert hoodie of Shino’s and contents himself to being warm for more than a minute. 

“Ibiki?” Shino’s hands drops onto his shoulder, and down near his hands. Their fingers don’t come into contact.

Kiba has a feeling like that is a bullet dodged and he can’t tell if he’s disappointed or relieved.

“Can I vent to you?” He asks instead. 

“You always vent to me. That’s what I’m here for,” Shino points out.

Kiba stares at him. The human furnace moth boy rolls his eyes, acquiescing. Pulling out a book, he flicks Kiba’s shoulder. 

“Fine, fine. Go off.” 

Kiba’s Kermit brain doesn’t take that long to pour The Tea.

“So when I put up my hand, and I quoted from  the textbook, I was told ‘you said that in a way that I didn't like, would you mind rephrasing it?’ when another person said the fucking exact same thing and got praised for it - _are you listening to me?”_  

Shino flips another page of his textbook. Doesn't even bother looking up.

“You said you wanted to talk. I said okay. You talked. You never asked for me to listen to you nor did I agree to that. So I did my job and you did yours.”

Kiba is so shocked and angry that he can't even begin to form words right now. 

_"Oh you funky little bastard -”_

“I'm taller than you. But your tutor shouldn't have done that. Are you done?”

Shino's eyes are completely open, with no glasses to obscure them from view. They're light, fairy lights pretty, and he's quickly losing his train of thoughts on what he was going to say.

“So you were listening,” he wheezes out, brain and mouth never once connected in his life.

“I would be completely heartless to not listen to something that is troubling you,” Shino flips another page, ruthlessly loud, and Kiba notices that it's definitely not in Japanese or English. Bastard’s been reading a straight up Latin text on insects dichotomy for a solid fifteen minutes.

Kiba's brain Kermit whispers _Nerd._ But Kiba's brain also gay whispers **_Cute_ ** _nerd._

He'll get kicked for either one, so better not.

“Uh, thanks?” He coughs out. 

“Stupid dog brain,” Shino rolls his eyes, packing away his book. “Are you good to go to the Yamanaka’s to get flowers for Hinata tomorrow? She finished that god awful assignment and is recovering from it.” 

“Finally,” he rolls his eyes, inching away from Shino as he not to subtly tries to pull the edge of the coat away from his knee. “So just after your biology class?” 

“Hmm,” Shino leans over, fingers brushing the shell of his ears. Kiba, stupid, leans in, because he whispers and Kiba’s hearing is rigged, and blinks as he realises that _Hmm, maybe our faces are a bit_ **_too close._ ** 

He doesn’t pull away. That would have been worse.

Shino, gauging his reaction, only drops a sharp chin onto his shoulder, hands coming around to squeeze the back of his neck.

“That tickles,” Kiba comments, rather uselessly.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, dog brain,” Shino tells him, nodding as they make Very Serious Eye Contact.

He feels like he’s missing something as Shino walks away from that.

(It dawns on him, later on, that at that block of time, Shino has a club meeting, and Shino, through sheer sorcery, had never missed a single meeting, being a committee member.

It dawns on him that _Shino just missed a meeting to listen to my stupid rant_ and he feels distinctly like he’s been knocked over the head with a baseball bat with moss green signs screaming _Hey brat that’s love._ )

  

Insofar, Kiba had maintained a perfectly neutral and cultivated obnoxious face. He is also a very terrible liar, and he doesn't know how much of this stunt Shino buys.

Ino and a very enthusiastic Lee are picking out flowers for them and throwing everything in a frankly outrageous bouquet, as he and Shino shuffle around the sunflowers and trying not to knock over anything. 

“Why are you so tall,” he hisses in open affront, pinching Shino by the side.

“That's assault. And I eat my vegetables,” Shino doesn't even flinch, and navigates them out of the tight spaces near the gardenias, blooming brightly and obnoxiously. 

He flails around and swears up and down on Shino's family of beetles. The other boy doesn't listen, only pulls him by his collar around to the shop front, as he hisses and gnashes his teeth at the flowers. 

“Being tall is not an actual offence,” Shino reminds him. “Assault is. You're assaulting me.”

“Why don't you just become a lawyer, while we're at it,” he sneers, but plasters on a perfectly charming face as he turns to Ino. “Thanks, queen. I owe you one.”

Lee and Ino watch in open amusement and fascination as a loud and dangerous tackle unfold before them as Kiba and Shino fight each other for their wallets, hindered by each other. 

“Will they be okay?” Lee whispers to Ino. 

“It never gets out of hand. Don't stress too much about it,” Ino whispers back. “Though Kiba will get to pay.” 

Kiba does end up paying. He maybe took that victory to a much higher degree of triumph than it rightly deserves, but he's tiny and loud while Shino can just extend his arm and all arguments are settled. He has to win at _something._

Shino, one arm holding the bouquet and another in his pocket, in which Kiba is looping his arm through and dragging him through the campus grounds, doesn't even bother with contesting the myriads of victory chants Kiba emits. He's probably too tired for that.

“Kiba,” he does mention. “You've been looking odd lately. Any problems that you want to vent?” 

 _Yeah, you,_ is what his Kermit brain hisses over the black hood.

To be fair, if he says that, Shino wouldn't think it's too much out of the ordinary for them. He wouldn't be ruining anything. Probably.

“Just. Don't worry about me. I'll bounce back up on no time,” he waves it off, a hand coming around to clasp over Shino’s wrist. Strong. Firm. Reliable. 

Kiba's dog brain is barking up a lot of information, but right now the most imminent one is just _Am I fawning over my friend's wrist and forearms???_  

Shino looks down at him. 

 _Welp,_ Kermit says, _Yes._

“I'll see you,” he pulls away from their pseudo-couple hand holding. “After gym.”

“Okay,” Shino intones. “Don't make Sasuke feel bad about his leg strength.”

“Uchiha doesn't have _any_ leg strength,” he rolls his eyes, standing on his tiptoes to hug Shino goodbye.

He thinks too much about the fact that the arm wrapped around his back pulls him in tighter than any other hugs they've had so far. He thinks about that a lot.

 

“What's wrong with him now,” Sasuke is standing over his fallen, shameful self, with Naruto in tow.

“Hey buddy,” the blonde kneels by his side. “You alright? Can you get up? Can you keep going? Want me to walk you home?”

Sasuke's affronted scoff is almost enough of an incentive for him to say yes. But Hana is picking him up for dinner, so he politely declined. 

“You can walk your boyfriend home instead, baby, I think he'll need it more,” Kiba winks from the floor. 

Sasuke's voice takes on a derisive and defensive tone as he protests that _No I don't need to be walked home._  

“Okay. I'll wait for you!” Naruto, lovely and beautiful and too good for anything on this world  Uzumaki, beams, all sunshine and rainbows, and bounces outside, not before wringing a shoulder squeeze from a reluctant Sasuke.

“Ha,” he hacks out a laugh at the Uchiha who swivels back to him with murder in his eyes. 

“Go focus on your own problems, dog brain, rather than mine.” 

“I think I'm doing alright, thanks!” He shrieks out. 

That was a bit of a lie. He's not doing alright. He fell off a treadmill and smacked his face and nose somewhere. It hurt. Everything hurt. His brain hurt. He just wants to go home and snuggle up against Akamaru and Shino and Hinata. 

But _Shino._ He can't go home before he resolves all of That.

 

Hana pays exactly three seconds of care into her conversation with him and decides that he's not worth listening to. 

“But nee-san -” 

Hana cuts him off. 

“Clearly you're over thinking, and that is the only sentence I'm throwing in, in regards to all of this. I don't want to know, nor do I care about your problems. Don't think too much, you're going to go in the wrong direction.” 

“But those are two sentences though,” he points out, because that's what he does. 

“I'm going to taxidermy your dog,” she threatens. 

“That's not a verb, and you have to get past Shino first.” He points out again, something like odd pride surging in Akamaru, the miracle dog bridging their differences ever since they're ten years of age. 

“Oh my god,” she rolls her eyes, punting him through the doorway of his shared apartment. “Just talk to him. Please. I'm sick of this.” 

 

Shino is still awake and very much not moving, shoulder and arm occupied by Hinata, with Akamaru firmly planted across his legs. 

“Hey,” Kiba lifts a hand. “Sorry I missed dinner. Hana wanted to eat out.” 

“As long as you eat your vegetables, Kiba,” Shino solemnly intones. 

“You're full of shit,” he lobs a bracelet at the couch, careful not to actually hit Shino or Akamaru.

“Hmm,” is all he gets.

 

It still feels weird that Kiba, so grumpy and tired by noon, is a morning person. Like, with functional brain cells and everything.

Shino is the complete opposite. He's been up all night completing that stupid report. Now he's compensating by glaring lasers onto the soy sauce. 

“Hey,” Kiba nudges the sauce container aside. “Have some tea.”

"Hmm,” is all he gets, as Shino slumps sideways into his arm, breathing harshly onto his skin. 

Kiba's done some thinking. He's done quite a bit, really, but Hana really helped. It's like she knows how his brain works. Amazing. 

But yeah. Thinking. Been doing some of that.

He'd also done some evaluating and tapping into his emotions as well. See what they say.

Unsurprisingly, they all sound like Kermit and they all echo back in the same Darth Vader voice.

_Ask him out._

“There there,” Kiba pats his roommate’s head, hair all poof and fluff at six o’clock before anyone else is awake. 

“Mornings are abominations,” Shino groans, sounding like an actual eighteen year old low on sleep. “I have a lab in an hour, but I have to leave soon. Please murder me.”

“No thank you,” he softly declines, trying to braid short strands of hair one handedly.

“What good are you then,” the other sighs, pushing away and easing his hair out of Kiba's measly hands.

Kiba forgoes all the insults and just chases after the fluff, bemoaning _Noo_ as he's deprived of it.

“What am I going to do with you, Inuzuka Kiba,” Shino laments, true Noh theatre style, and drops his face onto the crown of his head, sighing as he breathes in Kiba's shampoo. 

“Probably kill me,” he ventures a guess.

“Correct, but that will be troublesome.”

“You just sound like Shikamaru now."

“We are spending quite a lot of time together, are we not? My speech patterns leaked onto his too. Now we speak like we own half of each other's brain cell.”

Kiba whines. “I thought that was an us thing.”

“Kiba, literally everything else is an us thing,” Shino deadpans. “What is there that isn't ours?”

Kiba thinks. There aren't any. That he can think of.

He's not really thinking, but he's trying his best. And that's commendable.

“How rude of me,” Shino lifts his head away, tugging at Kiba's shoulder. “Would you like to become an us? We did skip the asking part.” 

“There was already an us?” He queries back, because. What. What. 

What.

“Kiba,” Shino closes his eyes, patient, but so so pained. “Obviously.”

“I didn't realise,” he admits honestly. “But that makes sense.” 

It does and it doesn't. His brain is hurt-y. But his heart is happy. It's churning out confetti as he speaks.

“You're not making it sound any better by admitting that. Are you really alright with it? I know we skipped some steps but -” 

Kiba rises, clasps Shino's hands in his. 

“Darling,” he blinks, hoping for the Charming Rake image and not the My Contact Lenses Are Plotting Against My Vision image, as sweet as honey.

Shino positively freezes. Right on the spot. 

“Yes,” he croaks, more mesmerised than cautious. 

Kiba doesn't know what's going on but he likes it. He leans in, until his lips graze the shell of Shino's ear.

There is a sound of quickly deflating balloons that he is _definitely_ enjoying.

“You're going to miss your bus, you truant,” he whispers, grinning. 

Shino pulls on his earring, the hoop the man himself got for Kiba for his eighteenth, grumbling, pulling his turtleneck higher and over his lips. 

The tip of his nose is dyed bright red. Kiba is bloody _delighted_ over this development, even if his brain hasn't played catch up to it, not fully yet.

“I'm leaving,” he declares, sounding strangled.

“Have a productive day,” Kiba waves, a little bit lazily, and a little bit hysterically as Shino walks into two walls and a door.

“Is Shino okay?” Hinata asks, as they witnessed another tripping fault over thin air.

“I think he's just peachy,” Kiba grins, all feral and diabolic. “And I'm getting up to make breakfast. What do you want, pup?”

Hinata quickly texts Naruto and Sakura _Hey fellas I think Kiba broke Shino._

Sakura returns with _fook now i owe sasuke 10 bucks._

Naruto chimes in - _and ino._

Hinata locks her screen and chants to herself. _I'm not involved. I'm not involved._

  

Shino returns, with actual vengeance.

Kiba doesn't know what's up until he senses a very distinct Shino-esque shadow, casting its ominous shade over his slumped head. At first he thought it was just Uchiha out there trying to break his legs before his gym session by the sheer power of his red-eyed stare, in which he remains as glued to his seat as possible, making himself an extension of the seat. 

Then, because he’s stupid and gay and he can tell whose hand it is that tries to pry the pen away from his grip because who else can it be but Shino, stupid caretaker and mother hen, going out of his way to check up on Kiba, resident problem child?

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” Shino grumbles, trying to quietly wrestle the pen out of the white-knuckled grip he establishes over the stupid gel pen Sai got him as a souvenir in Sound.

“No,” he grits, “I’m going to stab you in the face.”

“That’s actual assault, and a statutory criminal offence under the law of this land,” Shino mumbles back, and drops down so that Kiba can see him.

And his so not tinted glasses.

Okay. Okay _no._ That’s not fair. That’s cheating.

Kiba can play games with Shino without glasses. Shino with his rare moments where he dons actual human people glasses is a terrible terrible awful Shino and he’s going to snap this pen in _half._

“Please let go,” Shino whispers.

“Or what,” he hopes for cocky. Arrogance. Confidence.

It comes out shaky and almost winded.

Shino just swoops down and drops a firm kiss on his thumb and Kiba’s knee jerk response is to _let go immediately and clutch his hand to his chest, silently screeching._

“You!” He gasps. “That wasn’t fair!”

Shino rolls his eyes, rising to the tall and imposing stature that he adopts over long years of archery with Torune. 

“Not everything is a game, Kiba.”

 _Everything is a game,_ the Kermit Brain Central mutters back, _and right now Shino is winning._ Kiba can’t seem to calm his heart down. His heart beat _less_ when he’s sprinting competitively in regionals. This is. This is just preposterous, that's what it is. Plain and clear -

“You look like I ate your steak,” Shino observes.

 _“You might as well had!”_ He shrieks back, shrill.

“It was only a kiss, Kiba,” Shino honest to god intones back, with zero apology in his words. Apologies for making Kiba's heart streamlines directly to a stroke, that's what he's guilty of. 

He emits a shriek that sounds only part way human, and smacks Shino repeatedly on the arm, accusing him of shaming his ancestors for twelve generations back.

“I don't like you anymore!” He hisses, cranking out some claws. “Begone, bee boy.” 

“Love you too, honey,” Shino sings in mock singsong as he bounds down the steps. “See you at dinner.” 

“Argh!” He screams into his arm. “I don't like PDA!”

Someone lifts their bubble tea cup and cheers to his Gay Induced Panic. “I'll drink to that, bro.” 

“Piss off, ghost!” He lobs an eraser at an indiscriminate place near the podium, seething. 

If Shino wants to play games, he's going to give him games.

 

He has to amend this erroneous situation. Nobody is providing free counsel for him, which, incredibly rude of them, and second of all, he can't do much when it comes to Shino. They signed a lifelong disclosure contract in which they bring harm to everyone around them _but_ each other. He can't just violate the terms of such strict contractual agreements. The principles of the thing would be lost! And then Shino will be sad! Truly horrible.

But. What doesn't kill can torment better. Which is precisely why Shino is out here, two hours away from their dorm, trekking through fields of daisies amidst fleeing fireflies.

“Good picking,” he hears Shino notes, hand tightening around his own. “Be careful. You might fall.” 

Kiba's brain screams at how Shino is out here being a perfect gentleman, but it also reminds him that Shino is a piece of shit, and he has a game he needs to be a victor at. Victory must be secured no matter what. 

No matter what.

He finds a good spot for them to set out their blanket, and plops onto it bodily, pulling Shino with him, sprawling on top of his back. 

Revenge can wait for two more hours. After the cuddle.

“Okay, so, no listen, I actually looked this up, because I want to look cool and educated and shit, and so, that's Orion,” he points dead centre at the Orion Belt, sitting very very close to Shino, shamelessly pressing up against him and hiding under his chin. 

Shino squints, trying to locate it, and Kiba thinks _Damn I have to do all the work in this house huh,_ and picks up his hand, guiding it towards the constellation of stars.

“I,” Shino sounds strangled, “see.” 

“Do you though,” Kiba slants a look of sheer doubt at him. “You're not even looking at the stars.” 

“The fireflies are very bright,” he wheezes out. “It’s hard to distinguish both sources of light.” 

“You have seen the stupid bright ass tower that blinds you so much you start wearing tinted glasses when walking in town, at night, right?” He's shocked. Flabbergasted. Thrown off his radar. These fireflies are _nothing_ in comparison to the town tower. On Wikipedia, where they talk about light pollution, that stupid tower is there. 

“Stop shaming me,” Shino bumps into him. It doesn’t even _hurt._  

“Hey hey now, bug boy, you know I’m worth more than that, right?” He bumps right back, grinning, half a face hidden completely by the dark. 

He’s not too sure what Shino sees, but the resulting wheeze is enough confirmation that whatever he did, he did _good._  

Obviously, being the complete and utter asshole that he is, he’s going to keep doing it. Yeeting Shino completely off his Composure Boat is a Kiba’s Favourite Pastime Activity, and nobody can tell him off for continuously tormenting his tormentor. 

“Hey,” he knocks sideways into his, yes, fine, okay, the giddiness is still there, _boyfriend._ “Wanna do something for me?” 

“Do you even have to ask,” Shino's sigh is long suffering. 

“Cool, cool,” he prattles excitedly, turning Shino to face him. “I have a request. Close your eyes.” 

Shino closes his eyes first, before asking questions, because he's stupid, and he's going to get shanked one of these days. 

“Wait, why,” he asks, eyes fully closed. 

“Just so I can do this,” he leans in, lips closing on a spot directly centre of Shino's left eyelid.

There is utter gay silence when he pulls away that he's halfway to afraid that he might have killed a person and might need to bury him - 

 _“You,”_ Shino's sharp intake of breath is all the rush of adrenaline that Kiba needs. It's a natural high, a sugar rush that knocks him off his feet and leaves him craving more. 

He needs more. This is simply not enough. 

“Hey, Shino-chan, can I ask you something?” His hand finds its way to the tuff of hair curling out of order near his ear.

When he's nervous, he tucks Shino's hair back in order. He's doing that repeatedly now. He's trembling, trying to tamper down the raw need to _touch,_ to _feel._

“What,” the breath that leaves Shino's mouth is ragged. Raw.

“Can I kiss you?” 

Once again, awkward gay silence.

Shino goes very delightedly red. He smothers a hand over his face, grumbling expletives under his breath, and takes it away, as if everything had wronged him and Kiba is about to join that list. 

“You can say no,” Kiba tells him. What he meant was _Please don't say no._  

“I'm not an idiot,” Shino rolls his eyes, shuffling closer. “Do your worst.” 

“Have not kissed before, but -” 

“And you think I have?” Shino echoes back, appalled that he even dared suggest anything less than utter abstinence on his part.

“Just let me kiss you, Aburame,” he shushes Shino, squeezing his hand twice.

Shino had gone completely still, and Kiba waits.

A squeeze back, and the tension leaves Shino's shoulder. 

Okay. Okay he can do this. Probably. 

He leans in, tremors in the tips of his fingers, head tilted to one side, lips suddenly very dry. “I really am thankful for everything you've done for me, Shino, but this game I have to win.” 

He declares that, and closes that gap between their mouths.

 

(Shino swears that he will enact unreasonable and borderline indecent PDA onto Kiba and to everyone else once they get back to civilisation. 

Kiba told him to bring it. He'll win anyways.)

**Author's Note:**

> SDFGHJKL;LIUYTRFGHUI really unhappy when i finished but when i reread it again i was like 'huh seems legit i'll drink to that' because fiction can't always be perfect and if everything is perfect then i would be happier and it imitates the awkwardness of reality so in the end everything has to suck for something to be good thanks for coming to my tedtalk everyone
> 
> pLease find me on social media and interact and scream about kibashino with me: [twitter](https://twitter.com/tacobell_com), [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/jenny_benny) and [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/tacomakers-central)


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